Must have equipment for SPS

[ddaddy2420]

This weekend I visited Pure Reef for the very first time. One thing I am certain of is I have been bit by the SPS bug for sure. My tank is still new so I am not about to start loading it up with SPS right now, however, I did purchase a $5 SPS frag a week ago just to see what would happen. Its actually looking good, i see tons of polyps every day so I am encouraged by this. Just wanted to throw this out there and let some of you seasoned SPS reefers chime in and give me a little advice before I start to really think about SPS coral. Because I can tell you after seeing the tank in my first visit to Pure Reef, I am definitely going to go that direction. Seeing SPS like that in person is sooooooooooo much different than what you see online. Online pics, as good and detailed as they be, do not do these beautiful coral any justice whatsoever. Especially to a new guy like myself who had never seen them in person.

This is my list of equipment and set up, just curious what are the must haves for SPS that I do not have. Is there anything i need to change or do?

90 gallon tank
**Lighting: current - 4 x 54 watt T5 fixture (geissmann and ATI bulbs) Will be getting a 32" - 200 watt controllable LED fixture in a few weeks for my birthday
**700gph little giant return pump - external set up
**Eshopps sump/ refugium ADV-100: One side has refugium (3" sand bed and some LR and chaeto); other side has skimmer and 2 phosban reactors (matrix and carbon in series)
**Coralife 220 protein skimmer (i think it does pretty good)
**Water flow: I have 4 powerheads in my tank along with my return = 1300 +1300 + 1350 + 900 + 700 = 5500 gpm - The 1350 is a tunze 6055 hooked up to the tunze wavemaker (have fine tuned this to create a small wave in my tank but hopefully will be getting another tunze in the future to really reap the benefits of the wavemaker)
**70lbs Live Rock in tank with about a 1" sand bed
**Livestock: coral beauty angel, maldives lyretail anthias, yellow tang, sand sifting star, 2 coral banded shrimp (one has yellow on it and one has blue - anyone know anything about these colors???), bluespotted watchman goby, pencil urchin
**Current coral - xenias, neon green frogspawn, anemone, young leather coral, kenya trees, mushrooms, some zoas, blue cove polyp frag, <-- just some basic starter coral
Water parameters:
ph 8.0 <-- hardly ever moves - and i test it daily with a hand held meter and check it against another hand held meter
Temp 76-80 <-- also get this from the same hand held meter
salinity 1.025
Nitrites 0
Ammonia 0
Nitrates 40ppm
phosphate undetectable
Calcium 460
Magnesium 1420

I do 1-2 gallon water changes daily. I also started vodka dosing about a week ago to try and do something about my nitrate issue. I realize its only a band aid but I can't seem to find the issue. I have tried cutting back on my feeding. I am currently trying to get Larry's reef frenzy food as I have heard its very clean. I also added the matrix yesterday. One thing I will say my water is looking almost crystal clear and the build up on my glass is less and less. I almost thought this nitrate reading was not correct, thought maybe the test was bad but i tested my QT tank is it showed 0 nitrates and i used the same water change and top off water for both tanks.

Oh and I installed a ro/di unit about 2 weeks ago so all my water is clean.

Anyways, that is what I have and need to know what else do i absolutely need for SPS. Is there anything i need to change? I realize i need to get my nitrate reading down so anything other than that. Also if you have any suggestions for my nitrates I am all ears.

Thanks in advance,

Dale

 

[heathlindner25]

I would suggest doing some bigger water changes

 

[kvdigiulio]

I agree with doing a larger water change. I also have a 90 gal tank and I do 10/15 a week. I feed daily but slowly making sure they eat most of what is put in the tank. A good clean up crew helps also.

 

[ddaddy2420]

2 gallons per day is 14 per week. You guys think I should do more than that?

 

[enderg60]

heathlindner25;830997 wrote: I would suggest doing some bigger water changes

Why? 2 gal a day is way better then one large one every week or month. it even helps keep things more stable.

In reality nothing is NEEDED. Just keep your parameters as stable as possible, if that means a calc reactor or something else so be it.

 

[eagle9252]

more at one time is better.

take an 8oz glass of water and stir in a teaspoon of table salt. stir and taste.

now take a teaspoon of water out and replace with a teaspoon of freash water stir and taste. do this until all the salt is gone.

or start with same thing and remove 10 to 20% and replace and stir and taste and repeat. i bet you the salt level in the cup dropped faster by doing the larger water change.

the same thing for the fish tank. small wc allow stuff to build up but too big say 50% is way too much

 

[heathlindner25]

EnderG60;831024 wrote: Why? 2 gal a day is way better then one large one every week or month. it even helps keep things more stable.

In reality nothing is NEEDED. Just keep your parameters as stable as possible, if that means a calc reactor or something else so be it.

because of his high nitrates ,I like mine closer to undetectable levels.

 

[kirkwood]

2 great starter sps would be birds nest and green slimmer. I'd say you could add a reactor for GFO or switch the matrix for gfo and find a spot in your sump for the matrix. You will also want to test your alkalinity. If you go spa you will need to start dosing 2part or get a calcium reactor. On a 90 2part is very doable. I'd also recommend pulling the blue clove frag if you don't want covering every rock in your tank. Its a personal choice if you like that look or not.

 

[darren24]

I have a 60G and do 5G water changes 2x per week. Works good for me.

 

[edulover]

eagle9252;831025 wrote: more at one time is better.

take an 8oz glass of water and stir in a teaspoon of table salt. stir and taste.

now take a teaspoon of water out and replace with a teaspoon of freash water stir and taste. do this until all the salt is gone.

or start with same thing and remove 10 to 20% and replace and stir and taste and repeat. i bet you the salt level in the cup dropped faster by doing the larger water change.

the same thing for the fish tank. small wc allow stuff to build up but too big say 50% is way too much

I tend to agree with you because large water changes is the way I have always done it....for convenience sake. However, fish and coral are more sensitive to drastic changes in parameters so it seems that the daily water change would be better. To me, it appears that you are achieving the same goal just doing it over time.

 

[heathlindner25]

Edulover;831035 wrote: I tend to agree with you because large water changes is the way I have always done it....for convenience sake. However, fish and coral are more sensitive to drastic changes in parameters so it seems that the daily water change would be better. To me, it appears that you are achieving the same goal just doing it over time.

once your nitrates are low, I agree two gallons a day would keep things more stable I would think. I was commenting on the 40ppm

 

[enderg60]

heathlindner25;831028 wrote: because of his high nitrates ,I like mine closer to undetectable levels.

Getting rid of nitrates and keeping them low are two different things.

If you want to lower your nitrates then yes 1 or 3, 80-95% water changes will do it. to keep them low lots of little changes work better.

 

[heathlindner25]

EnderG60;831054 wrote: Getting rid of nitrates and keeping them low are two different things.

If you want to lower your nitrates then yes 1 or 3, 80-95% water changes will do it. to keep them low lots of little changes work better.

I'm not arguing with you bud, I was just trying to help a buddy out.

 

[enderg60]

No worries, just saying.

Also nitrates of 40 and below will not effect SPS living. it will slow the growth a bit, and might cause darkening or even browning in some.

My old tank stuck around 40 its whole life and I never had any issues. That said, lower is better.

 

[seth the wine guy]

Unless you want to keep up with daily dosing 2 part, I think a Ca Reactor is an SPS keepers best friend. (Other than his skimmer!)

 

[racinrevo0818]

What's ever buddy's thoughts on 4 degree temp swings? Seems like a lot but could just be overrated. I have always read within 1 degree is good. Maybe just adjusting your heater a little warmer, should be a pretty simple fix.

 

[ichthyoid]

Temp swings of 2-4 degrees within 24 hours is pretty common on a reef.

Acro's on the barrier reef are sometimes completely exposed, at low tide.

 

[softhammer]

Your tank sounds good to me! I have a 90 that has been running in one way or another for 9 years. For now I wouldn't even worry about a Calcium reactor. Actually I would advise against it. It is way way too easy to have an algae explosion with the residual CO2 combined with the nitrate issue. Stick with 2 part dosing. The cost is much less in the short run and its a safer venture than a possible reactor disaster, especially if you haven't used one before. Since we are giving opinions here.. I would invest in a new skimmer if it were me. The Coralife aren't exactly the best thing around. Yes they will pull gunk out of the water but I bet you would be amazed at how much is left in the water. For my setup (again comparable to yours) I had a Tunze 9005 that pulled out dark skimmate but still left crap in the water. I then got a Tunze 9010 rated for 290 gallons and ran them side by side. The original smaller one pulled out literally nothing while the bigger one pulled triple the skimmate. I was in awe. Point being a skimmer looks like its working great but its not completely cleaning you up. I think everyone will agree that a high performance skimmer is vital for success. They aren't cheap but quality is worth it and will last a long time.

 

[ddaddy2420]

Holy cow, such great stuff here...gotta read it a few times to process.

Just to sum up though, I think I have been overfeeding my tank which is leading to my high nitrates, i have been discussing this with acroholic in PM's and think he has finally helped me dial this in. That being said, I will plan to do some big water changes over the next 3 or 4 weeks to get my nitrates down.

Also sounds like 2 part dosing is the way for me to begin with. While i would love a calcium reactor, that is a bit out of my price range at the moment, especially considering i think i will be getting a new skimmer. I had already been thinking about this, was planning on pulling the trigger in a few weeks.

No one has really said much about the vodka dosing...should I continue? It is such an easy thing to do and if it helps control nitrates...I will say my tank has never looked clearer since i started vodka dosing. Don't know if this has anything to do with it or if the carbon or matrix or whatever, my tank looks very clear...much clearer than before.

Also, i am still looking for some beginner SPS. I did see green slimer and birds nest, but are there any others? I obviously won't proceed until i feel good about my nitrates and get the 2 part dosing together.

Thanks for the replies,
Dale

 

[ralph atl]

there are different methods and some of them work, a lot of them don't.....

SPS tank will mean as close or at to an ULNS as possoble.

1. you'll need an excellent Hobby grade test kit for:

ALK (Elos)
Mag (Elos or Salifert)
Nitrates (Tropic Marin is low range and works great)
Phates http://www.marinedepot.com/Elos_Professional_Aqua_Test_Kit_Phosphate_Phosphate_Test_Kits_for_Saltwater_Aquariums-Elos_USA-EO4131-FITKPT-vi.html">(Elos low range pro phosphate kit)</a>


Phates need to be contantly at 0.028 or lower and trates at 0.5 or lower

I suggest large Weekly water changes that must match your display tanks temp, salinity, and alk.

maintenance as follows:

I change my water weekly at about 35% rate using Salinity salt from Seachem with a calibrated refractometer at 35.

I change my 1 cup of HC GFO & 1 cup Rox .8 Carbon anywhere from weekly to ten days in brs reactors.

I use 4 liters of Seachem Matrix, 1/2 in reactor and 1/2 in sump

I use 2 part dosed 6 times daily

My sump is wet-vac' weekly and has nothing in it except <span style="font-family: Arial">Trigger Bursa Skimmer (excellent, but there are better), change sand now & then...</span>

<span style="font-family: Arial">I dose approx 10 ml of 90%-10% vodka to vinegar daily</span>

<span style="font-family: Arial">I heavily feed fish, feed corals 2-4 times monthly....</span>

<span style="font-family: Arial">Calcium &gt;450</span>
<span style="font-family: Arial">Alk =9</span>
<span style="font-family: Arial">Mag &gt;1350</span>
<span style="font-family: Arial">trates &lt;0.5</span>
<span style="font-family: Arial">phates &lt;0.028</span>

<span style="font-family: Arial">temp= 77-82 fan cooled</span>
<span style="font-family: Arial">stays mostly below 81</span>

<span style="font-family: Arial">I have been carbon dosing and gfo since early 2006 or earlier....</span>

<span style="font-family: Arial">There are many ways to get there, this is one that works...there are others....</span>